Analysis of LTE Network Connection Parameters at Legal Maximum UAV Flight Altitudes and Comparison with Ground

Abstract

Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and UAV Traffic Management (UTM) systems have gained attention, particularly for applications such as aerial mapping and agriculture. Due to the widespread use of applications and the increasing number of UAVs, air traffic poses a danger to the public and the inability to track UAVs causes a security vulnerability. The European U-Space concept and the Next GEN concept in the USA implement the Air corridor and UTM system for Tracking of UAVs and Commercial UAVs services. It is desired to use new generation communication infrastructures for UAVs to communicate with UTM uninterruptedly and safely. In this study, flights were conducted at the maximum legal altitude limit of 120 meters to test the usability of the UAV and UTM communication infrastructures of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) communication infrastructures of Mobile Operators in Turkey. In the study, an LTE-supported UAV was connected to the Türk Telekom Corporation (Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş.) Mobile LTE network, log telemetry information was sent to the UTM server on the ground via the UAV from an altitude of 120 meters, and the connection quality of the Mobile Operator was determined. In addition, the signal quality and strength measured from the ground on the same route as the highway were compared with the signal quality and strength received by the UAV at an altitude of 120 meters. Successful results were achieved and it was proven that communication can be achieved using the Mobile Operator's LTE network even at the maximum legal UAV altitude limit.